In recent decades medicine has been rightfully credited with giant scientific advances and the development of life-extending techniques. These very advances, however, have called sharp attention to a new and little understood class of problems, namely how patients adapt to a permanent health condition and at the same time maximize their potential to live a full life. It is in the context of enduring health problems that a new voluntary resource has begun to grow. This resource is the lay or Mutual Support Group composed of members who have a particular health problem and who seek to help others facing this same problem. The proposed research is directed to three of these groups: Reach to Recovery, The United Ostomy Association and The International Association of Laryngectomies. The implications of the research, however, extended to any patient confronting a chronic condition. The objective of the research is to assess the impact of mutual support groups on patients' recovery and functioning, both subjective and objective. Subjective Recovery emphasizes the extent of social-psychological well-being and Objective Recovery, the extent to which patients are resuming customary social roles. Using a Quasi-Experimental Research Design, data will be collected 3-6 months post-hospitalization from 650 individuals contacted by a support group and 650 not contacted. In preparation for this effort informant interviews will be conducted with selected physicians, nurses, and social workers, and with leaders of the support groups being studied. The study will have an advisory committee to facilitate access to a suitable sample and to aid in the development of the research instrument. In sum, the limited time, resources, and expertise of traditional health services and the lack of information about how people cope with continuing health problems makes it imperative that we identify the capabilities and limitations of a potential, but unstudied community resource, i.e., the mutual support group.